which natives can receive at the hands of
their present rulers. Natives of independent and honest character
cannot afford at present to join the ranks of converts without losing
that true caste which no man ought to lose--namely, self-respect. They
are driven to prop up their tottering religions, rather than profess a
faith which seems dictated to them by their conquerors. Such feelings
ought to be respected. Finally, let missionaries study the sacred
writings on which the faith of the Parsis is professedly founded. Let
them examine the bulwarks which they mean to overthrow. They will find
them less formidable from within than from without. But they will also
discover that they rest on a foundation which ought never to be
touched--a faith in one God, the Creator, the Ruler, and the Judge of
the world.

_August, 1862._

IX.

BUDDHISM.[52]

If the command of St. Paul, 'Prove all things, hold fast that which is
good,' may be supposed to refer to spiritual things, and, more
especially, to religious doctrines, it must be confessed that few
only, whether theologians or laymen, have ever taken to heart the
apostle's command. How many candidates for holy orders are there who
could give a straightforward answer if asked to enumerate the
principal religions of the world, or to state the names of their
founders, and the titles of the works which are still considered by
millions of human beings as the sacred authorities for their religious
belief? To study such books as the Koran of the Mohammedans, the
Zend-Avesta of the Parsis, the King's of the Confucians, the
Tao-te-King of the Taoists, the Vedas of the Brahmans, the Tripi_t_aka
of the Buddhists, the Sutras of the Jains, or the Granth of the Sikhs,
would be considered by many mere waste of time. Yet St. Paul's command
is very clear and simple; and to maintain that it referred to the
heresies of his own time only, or to the philosophical systems of the
Greeks and Romans, would be to narrow the horizon of the apostle's
mind, and to destroy the general applicability of his teaching to all
times and to all countries. Many will ask what possible good could be
derived from the works of men who must have been either deceived or
deceivers, nor would it be difficult to quote some passages in order
to show the utter absurdity and worthlessness of the religious books
of the Hindus and Chinese. But this was not the spirit in which the
apostle of the Gentiles addressed himself